The four assistant officers looked at each other in confusion: The question Chen Di raised in court today was about selecting the examiner. Why did His Majesty suddenly announce the content of the reform examination?
‘It seems that His Majesty has been thinking about changing the content of the imperial examination for a long time, otherwise how could he suddenly announce the reform.’ Everyone thought.
As for the changes in the content of the imperial examination, it was not something that ministers could comment on at this time, and Yunxi's changes were not considered very large-scale, so no one raised their opinions.
However, "Your Majesty, the imperial examination is a matter handled by the Ministry of Rites. Do you want to summon Chen Dixuan, the Minister of Rites?" Bao Zhao said.
Yunxi thought for a moment and said, "Then call Chen Qing over. But I am here to convey the order, not to discuss it."
After a while, Chen Di came over. After hearing Yunxi's reforms, he said: "Your Majesty, I think it is very appropriate to change the classics and meanings to the Five Classics, and it is right to pay more attention to policy theory. However, if this math question is too difficult for your majesty, , I am afraid that many talented people will regret not being admitted.”
Yunxi said: "In this exam, I personally set the math questions to ensure that the questions are not too difficult. However, it will become a common practice to add a math question to an exam, and the difficulty will gradually increase."
Since Yunxi said this, Chen Di could not say anything more. He bowed to accept the order and said: "Now there are only twenty-one days until the first examination. I will immediately order someone to post a notice at the gate of Gongyuan to inform the candidates. This time’s changes in the imperial examination.”
"We still need to send people to the hotels where each candidate lives to promote it. Many candidates may not often pass by Gongyuan." Yunxi said.
Chen Di promised.
Yunxi also asked Xia Yuanji to draw up an edict to inform all provinces about Yunxi's changes in the content of future provincial and general examinations.
At this time, Chen Di said: "Your Majesty, who will be appointed as the examiner for this examination?" Yun Xi has not yet answered the question he asked in the morning.
But Yunxi said something that surprised him: "There will be no examiner in this examination."
"No examiner?" Not only Chen Di, but also everyone else was very surprised. Xia Yuanji, who was drafting the edict, couldn't control it for a moment. When he came to the word '文', he wrote a foot long in one stroke. I quickly changed to a piece of yellow silk and rewrote it.
Chen Di was stunned for a long time and said: "Your Majesty, how can we take an exam without an examiner?"
"If there is no examiner, why can't we take the exam?" Yunxi asked.
Chen Di felt as if he had thousands of words to say, but he just couldn't figure out a clue and didn't know how to say them out.
But Yunxi began to talk about his idea: "Abolish the examiner and establish three officials: marking officer, question setting officer and promotion officer."
"The coordinator is responsible for ordering the examination room and preventing cheating; the question-setting officer is responsible for setting questions, and the questions on classics and historical texts; the marking officer is responsible for marking and evaluating the examination papers. Each of the three performs their own duties, so why do we have to set up an examiner?"
According to Yunxi's own examination experience, there is no examiner at all in the college entrance examination. The three parts of the question maker, grader, and invigilator are completely unrelated. Officials from the Ministry of Education only need to appoint the question maker, grader, local person in charge, and invigilator respectively. As long as the local person in charge is involved, there will be no problem.
Chen Di was stunned for a while and said: "Your Majesty, if there is no examiner, what if the marking officers have objections to who should be admitted and who should not be admitted? In addition, how will the admitted candidates be ranked?"
The two most important powers of the examiner in the ancient imperial examinations were: first, they could have the final say when fellow examiners had disputes over who should be admitted at the bottom of the list, and second, they could play a leading role in rankings. The reason why the examiner was so important in the Ming and Qing dynasties Being called a master by the tributes and becoming an errand that countless officials wanted to be responsible for originated from these two powers.
Yunxi said: "I also know these two problems, so I decided to change the grading model."
"There are still ten marking officers, but the previous examiners have been renamed as marking officers. No, there are twenty marking officers, ten of whom are only responsible for evaluating the meaning of scriptures, and the other ten are only responsible for evaluating the policy. Each article still needs
Three people assessed. But the assessment model changed."
"In the past, the test papers were only graded according to the grade, and there was not much difference. In the future, a hundred-point system will be established, with 90 to 100 points being the original first grade, 80 to 90 points being the original second grade, and so on."
"And in order to prevent ties, whole points are not allowed, that is, scores of ninety, eighty, etc. are not allowed, except for perfect scores."
"Everyone's score is based on classic meaning. The sum of the scores assessed by the six marking officers will be used to rank the scores. If there is still a tie, look for a fourth marking officer to rate these equally divided papers."
"If the difference between the scores assessed by the three marking officers is more than 20 points, a re-evaluation will be ordered."
If Yunxi changed the examination content to promote new ideas and promote cultural and ideological progress, then changing the examination format was to increase his own power and reduce the influence of the examiner.
Historically, the influence of examiners in the General Examinations has grown more and more. Countless officials who have served as examiners have used this to form their own political power and become important figures in the political arena. So much so that by the late Ming Dynasty, all qualified officials were
They have to compete for the position of chief examiner of the general examination, and those who can hold this official position can basically become cabinet bachelors.
The original intention of Zhao Guangyi, Emperor Taizong of the Song Dynasty, to set up the palace examination was not realized at all. Because the palace examination did not recruit candidates, no Jinshi considered himself a disciple of the emperor. Everyone regarded the examiner of the imperial examination as their teacher. There were even a few who ranked high in the imperial examination but ranked low in the palace examination.
People will also be dissatisfied with the emperor.
Yunxi knew that cliques were unavoidable when serving as officials, but he could not accept such cliques, mainly those of examiners, and decided to completely shatter the dreams of some people who wanted to become cliques as examiners.
.
After careful consideration, all the officials present found that Yunxi's method could indeed solve the admission and ranking problems. Although there were some minor problems, they could all be solved.
However, is it possible that the position of imperial examination examiner, which began to appear in the Tang Dynasty, will become history? Everyone finds it hard to accept this.
Especially Chen Di, who is currently the Minister of Rites, was originally the most likely person to serve as the examiner for this examination, but now this has come to nothing.
However, everyone does not have enough reasons to oppose Yunxi. The plan proposed by Yunxi is completely feasible. Although more officials need to be used, although there are few local officials in the Ming Dynasty, the central court has a lot of food to eat, so there is no need to worry at all.
Officials on temporary assignment.
Moreover, they had vaguely thought of the purpose of allowing Hei to reform the examination format and eliminate the examiner, so they did not dare to speak out against it.
After thinking hard, Chen Di finally bowed and said: "I obey your decree."
Yunxi nodded with satisfaction and said: "In that case, Xia Yuanji drafted an edict and announced it to all the government offices in the capital."